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OnLine Multicultural Manners ColumnSARS – NO LAUGHING MATTER?What do folklorists examine during a health crisis? They monitor jokes, not blood pressure. They track rumors instead of medical histories. They archive the folk remedies and folk healers people turn to for emotional and physical sustenance.From Canada, 6/13/03, click here JOKESSo far, no jokes about SARS have circulated on the Internet. Late night TV hosts may have commissioned their writers to come up with one-liners, like Leno’s, “Connie Chung will never get hired now.” But it is the anonymously-created e-mail jokes that reveal what worries the general public. Although some might consider joking about a deadly disease an anachronism, not so. Jokes are a way of coping with uncertainty and fear. They reveal what’s painful or embarrassing. Even tragedies evoke jokes. We had them after 9/11, following the deaths of Princess Di and John Kennedy, Jr., and about AIDS. A fourth-grade boy reports to his parents about AIDS Awareness Day at school. “I’m not sure, but I think we’re supposed to stay out of intersections and buy condominiums.” RUMORSRumors can be dangerous. They can produce hysteria and irrational behavior. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that some of us were steam ironing our mail to avoid anthrax, unaware that we put ourselves in even more peril by doing so. Someone who irons paper contaminated with anthrax could potentially inhale the spores released through the iron’s vapor. Whether fed by TV, newspapers, or the internet, rumors can wreak financial disaster. Stories about American Chinatown restaurants as a source of SARS have devastated the health of their businesses. Consequently, political leaders have attempted to assuage fears. Dining on dim sum, honey walnut shrimp and noodles, Hawaii’s Governor Linda Lingle tries to reassure residents that it is safe to eat in Honolulu’s Chinatown. In New York City’s Chinatown, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg savors bay scallops and corn to allay fear that has driven customers away. And in Los Angeles, a television newscast features an LAPD officer wielding chopsticks in a San Gabriel Valley Chinese restaurant to annul e-mail messages about the risks of dining there. In San Francisco, rumors spread that the owner of a popular dim sum restaurant is gravely ill. Business dramatically slumps. In Toronto, Canada, an e-mail hoax gives a list of specific names of infection locations, especially food outlets. It urges recipients to inform friends and family to avoid a particular mall creating even greater commercial damage. In Hong Kong, a rumor that smoking prevents SARS increases cigarette consumption. Worse, this misinformation encourages nonsmokers to start the habit, an ominous move in China that already has 300 million smokers with an annual death toll of 750,000 from smoking-related diseases. The further risk of acting upon this rumor is that smoking weakens the immune system and increases the risk of SARS because smokers regularly touch their noses and mouths. Not only that, but in order to smoke, they have to remove their surgical face masks further increasing risk of infection. Rumors have terrorized the Beijing population. One story circulates that martial law will be imposed and another warns that the eight central districts will be sealed off. Police arrest Stephen Shen who allegedly raises the panic level through his unfounded e-mail messages and bulletin board postings. Intensifying fear leads to price gouging and a scarcity of face masks, cold remedies, and disinfectants. At Northern Jiaotong University, hardest hit campus in Beijing with 60 SARS cases, one student exclaims, “If the virus doesn’t kill you, fear might.” FOLK REMEDIESSo far, there are no established diagnostic tests, treatments or cures for SARS. Because it is caused by a coronavirus, antibiotics are ineffective, although some patients who have received steroids and anti-viral drugs have responded favorably. In Asia, herbal medicines are the centerpiece of healing practices, and the public automatically turns to these ancient treatments. In China, the country with the most cases and fatalities, panicky residents flock to herb shops. In Hong Kong, one of the most popular substances is Banlangen (isatis root). Some believe that a tea of this root can cure the new disease. Others drink teas made of huzhang (Polygonum cuspidatum). Chinese health practitioners commonly prescribe both of these herbs as broad spectrum antiviral agents. Other herbs being used at this time are Ginseng, Tremella (white fungus and silver ear), Chrysanthemum, and Andrographis. Additional treatments to ward off the virus include boiling vinegar to purify the air, drinking cicada tea and turnip soup and eating whole cloves of garlic. One SARS prevention recipe requires boiling 10 grams of dead silkworms and 10 grams of cicada skins in water with five herbs for 20 minutes and drinking the water for seven to ten days. While ingesting silkworms and cicada skins might seem repugnant, we tend to forget that Western pharmaceutical companies disguise equally repulsive substances by transforming them into attractive pills. How many of the thousands of women who take Premarin are aware that this hormone replacement drug is made from pregnant mare’s urine? In Sydney, Australia’s Chinatown after a local Chinese radio program touts a SARS remedy composed of nine different herbs, Chinatown residents overflow the Win Duc herbal shop holding shopping lists of the nine herbs. The ingredients, imported from China, contain Lonicera flower, Isatis root, forsythia, prunella and coix. For greater efficiency during this health emergency, Mrs. Lam, the herbalist, now prepackages the herbs. She recommends boiling them with six cups of water for an hour until it turns into a dark-brown tarry-smelling liquid. Customers take one cup a day for five days to strengthen the body’s immune system so that it can better resist the virus. Whether the herbal tea boosts the immune system or acts as a placebo, either way, users benefit. Western medicine practitioners might do well to test the effectiveness of these herbs to avoid missing leads for potential preventatives and cures. CONCLUSIONWhile folklorists employ no stethoscopes, microscopes or medications, what they work with in times of medical crises are the rumors, the folk remedies and the jokes. How is this useful? Jokes give clues as to the emotional health of people in times of duress. Rumors demonstrate the power of fear and how it entices us to act upon irrational ideas just to calm ourselves, like blindly boycotting Chinese restaurants and markets. Finally, by documenting folk remedies, folklorists can supply information to the medical community about traditional healing methods that people may be using and of which Western medicine may be unaware. Meanwhile, if and when any SARS e-jokes arrive in your mailbox, please send them my way, and in turn I will share them with the rest of you.
En-Lai, Yeoh. 2003. Many Asians Turn to Traditional Medicine. 5 April (scroll to second story) Forney, Matthew. 2003. Stalking a Killer. Time Asia Magazine, 21 April CNN.com. 20 April 2003. HK Squashes SARS Smoking ‘Cure’ Kuhn, Anthony and Tyler Marshall. 2003. SARS Panic Mounts in Beijing as Migrant Workers Flee City. Los Angeles Times. 24 April, A2. Marshall, Tyler. 2003. Economy of Hong Kong Falls Victim to Disease. Los Angeles Times. 27 April, A11. Murphy, Dean E. 2003. In U.S. Fear Is Spreading Faster Than SARS. New York Times. April 17 Ni, Ching Ching. 2003. “If the Virus Doesn’t Kill You Fear Might.” Los Angeles Times. 25 April, A5. Sultanoff, Steven M. 2003. Larry, Moe and Curley: Jest for Perspective? |
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